Author Games: Path of the Guildpact

Task One Entries: Dimir-Rakdos

Mars

The door slammed against the wall the moment it was unlocked.

Mars jumped at the sound, his water bottle tumbling from his hands. The liquid inside sloshed heavy, but none spilled onto the pristine white carpet below. Leaning as far off the couch as he could, he tried peering into the other room. The only thing he could see was the edge of the table counter and the green wall behind it. For the second time, the door hit the frame wildly, and he watched as a girl paced past the archway.

Standing up cautiously, he took a step or two towards the foyer. "Umm, Mikaela?"

"Sometimes I'd just like to show her what for," the girl muttered, storming into the room.

"Are you okay? Who's 'her?'" he tried again, raising his eyebrows in concern.

"Hm?' Mikaela stopped mid-pace, her eyes falling on the boy for the first time. "Sorry, did I say something?"

"N-no," Mars responded quickly, rubbing the back of his neck to keep the hairs down. "I just- uh, the door," he said, gesturing to it halfheartedly.

The girl shook her head, peeling her coat off as she did so. "It's no big deal, some people are just," she shrugged to end the sentence.

He nodded, though his eyes had already caught on to a different subject. It wasn't as if he meant to stare, really, but it was kind of hard to not still be surprised. Even after seeing her walk through the door, part of him expected her to take off her coat and unfurl a pair of white, beautiful wings. Not that she wasn't beautiful already, he just hadn't noticed. Well, he had, but the point was that he wasn't interested or anything. Honestly, for all he knew, she was still one hundred percent planning to smite him in his sleep.

Mars watched as she dropped onto the couch, before catching sight of the sky outside. The sun had finally dropped below the horizon, moonlight just beginning to cast new shadows on the buildings below. It was honestly gorgeous outside. He had never seen so much green, the tree Vitu-Ghazi rested on providing everything with such life. Plenty of people were out wandering, blue and gold lights emitting softly to guide them through the city. A thought popped into his mind, and he hid a grin.

"Hey Mikaela, I'm going to head out for a bit," he paused to consider inviting her, but bit his lip instead and quickly ruled it out.

"Alright," she responded, giving him a short nod.

Taking that as a good sign, Mars grabbed his coat and walked out the door.

The hallway of the building was deserted. It smelled of pine and tree sap, though not in an over whelming way. Each of the doors looked carved out of wood, but he guessed it was more likely that they were all still part of the tree in some way or another. It was kind of fascinating, but Mars had never been very good in that area. It was more likely that he would've killed the plant if he had tried. Finding his way to the door labeled stairs, he pushed it open and started up.

His feet padded softly up the wooden planks. They reminded him of home, though maybe it was due to homesickness over anything else. They didn't creak beneath him or threaten to break if he accidentally tripped up them. Plus they were much longer, the stairwell leading all the way up to the roof instead of just a second story. Thankfully, it didn't take anywhere near hours to make it to the top.

Giving the door a gentle push, he stepped out onto the roof. Wind rustled his unruly hair, blowing white strands into his face. He tried briefly to fix them and then gave upon realizing the uselessness of doing so. Everything felt very high up as he peered over the edge, his height even taller than the blue domes spread out below him. Tall, gleaming white walls of the main church stood out to him, though they were a ling ways off. He hadn't truly realized how big Vitu-Ghazi was until then. Stepping up the edge of the roof, he peered over to look at the cobblestone streets below.